Skolkovo

Skolkovo, the much debated public effort by the Russian government to kickstart a startup culture inside the country, said it secured another 135.6 billion ruble ($4 billion) commitment from the government through the next seven years.
With additional private investor money projected on top of the government commitment, Skolkovo’s new funding should total about $15 billion through… Read More

During the height of the Cold War the Soviet Union built up a network of “Naukograd” or “Science Cities”. These were state-created clusters of scientists working on technologies that could help it compete with the West, especially in the field of nuclear weapons and space exploration. Those days are of course long gone, but today Russia – though now freed from… Read More

Russia’s government is looking to reform intellectual property law in the country, a move that could have an effect on how many patents get registered, and on the number of startups in a country known for its star engineers, but less so for business people who can execute on those ideas. Read More

Russia, like China, is a market full of tech promise, but in the face of strong local competiton, it is one that has also proven to be tough nut to crack for big U.S. companies looking for international growth.
But according to one IT leader in the country — Alexander Turkot, executive director of the IT Cluster at Skolkovo, Russia’s multi-billion dollar Silicon Valley-like work… Read More

In the debate over whether there can ever exist “another Silicon Valley” and where, exactly, it would be, add in another contender: Skolkovo, an ambitious high-tech sprawl being built outside of Moscow, which this week announced the latest two companies to invest in its big idea: Cisco and Bessemer Venture Partners.
Bessemer has promised investments worth $20 million over the next… Read More

Siguler Guff & Company, a US-based private equity firm with over $8.5 billion of assets under management, is investing $250 million in a high-tech hub outside Moscow that is often referred to as Russia’s ‘answer to Silicon Valley’, according to various reports.
Siguler Guff, owner of a subsidiary called Russia Partners, has made the investment public right after a visit… Read More